1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method for molding a liquid crystal resin sheet and a molding apparatus thereof.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Recently, there have been proposed a liquid crystal resin composite for improving a tensile strength of a matrix resin by the liquid crystal resin fibers dispersed therein (see Japanese Patent Tokkaisho 64-90255). The liquid crystal resin composite is prepared by melt-extruding a mixture comprising a thermoplastic resin as a matrix resin mixed with a predetermined amount of the liquid crystal resin having a liquid crystal transition point than a minimum moldable temperature of the matrix resin. The composite material comes into public attention as a substitute of the conventional fiber reinforce plastic (FRP) composite because the advantage of the composite material is easy to be recycled. Further, there has been found that reinforcement property is changed according to a fiber formation degree of the liquid crystal resin and the more the fiber formation degree advances, the more the property improves. Therefore, it has been found by us that the melt-extruding process of the mixture should be carried in a manner that the liquid crystal resin fibers result in being formed in the matrix resin with a aspect ratio of 3 or more (see FIG. 1) and the resulting composite is preferably further subjected to a drawing treatment.
However, such improvement of the property by means of drawing is limited and the drawing treatment make the resulting composite material into thin films which are not suitable to a molding process, so that it is necessary to provide a method and an apparatus for molding a composite sheet suitable to be molded while having an improved composite effect.